First Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A triple-height stone Gothic Presbyterian church, built 1895-7 (according to the date plaque) to designs by Vincent Craig, located at the north side of Dublin Road. T-plan, facing south; double-height lean-to aisles and transepts to east and west, triple-height gabled hall to rear of church and transepts, canted stair towers to west elevation of aisle and transept, gabled porch and four-stage tower to south elevation of aisle stair tower, modern hall extension to east gable of hall; modern double-height flat-roofed brick church hall with porch connected to north elevation of hall extension with a linking block (of no interest).

Pitched natural slate roofs, dressed basalt coping with crocketted apexes, roll-top red clay ridge tiles, ogee-profile cast-iron gutters; church lit to both pitches by five catslide dormers with painted timber tripartite cusped stained glass casements. Walling is random-coursed rock-faced basalt with sandstone dressing; corners have buttresses with off
setting. Windows are gothic stained glass casements, splayed sandstone reveals and flush sills.

Principal (south) gable is flanked by aisle elevations and abutted by porch and tower to left end. Gable has plinth, two splayed sandstone stringcourses, moulded sill-course at gallery-level; gallery lit by gothic sandstone Geometric-tracery stained glass casement with label-ended hoodmould over three stained glass lancets; apex has timber louvred oculus.

Porch has gabled entrance to left and tower to right; gable has niched sandstone apex, gothic stained timber chevron-sheeted double-leaf door with wrought-iron hinged strapwork, carved sandstone tympanum over moulded corbels with splayed reveals and a multi-rebated archivolt, label-ended hoodmould; right cheek is abutted by tower, left cheek has single square-headed stained glass casement. Square-on-plan tower is detailed as principal gable, first stage has square-headed loop casement with splayed sandstone reveals, diagonal buttress to corner, sandstone gargoyle ornament to left and one to sill-course left end; second stage rises from square-on-plan to octagonal-on-plan with offset sandstone spurs, various loop casement windows arranged on second and third stages; fourth belfry stage is dressed sandstone with square-headed loop apertures to each elevation between engaged colonettes supporting hipped roof.

West elevation is abutted entirely by transept to left and aisle to right. Transept has M-profile gable and is abutted to left by hall stair tower entrance (projecting under spur); exposed section walling is over splayed sandstone plinth, apexes have round-headed stained glass oculus in splayed sandstone reveals over single window to left and bipartite to right; left cheek is abutted entirely by hall, right cheek is blank. Aisle is detailed as transept with three bipartite windows separated by clamp buttresses with offsetting.

Rear (north) gable is abutted entirely by hall.

East elevation is detailed as west elevation, except transept (not abutted); aisle is four windows wide, left end has gable with stained glass oculus at apex, left cheek (south elevation) has stained timber chevron-sheeted double-leaf door with hinged wrought-iron strapwork, splayed sandstone reveals with multi-rebated archivolts in slight lean-to projection, stained glass trefoil with flush sandstone surrounds to apex.

Setting:-
Located at a prominent bend to the north side of the Dublin Road on an elevated site. Set back from road and bordered by a wall and railings the church is surrounded by well maintained mature landscaping.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling Basalt
RWG: Cast-iron
Windows Stained glass

Historical information

The church was built between 1895-1897 according to a date plaque located within the church hall. It is first shown on the 1905-6 OS map and is captioned ‘Presbyterian Church’.

The original property on the site is a ‘house and garden’, occupied by John Burns and leased from L. Hamilton. The building valuation is £1 15s. The house is deleted in 1901 and in 1902 ‘site of Presbyterian church’ is added.

Valuation Revisions revise the site description to ‘Presbyterian Church and Land’ in 1916, the building is valued at £208, and the occupier is the ‘Committee of [the] Presbyterian Church’.

According to the current clerk, the church was designed by Vincent Craig and the modern addition from the 1970s is by the architect Kenneth Collins. Rowan writes that the architect is ‘reputedly…Vincent Craig’. (Rowan, pg 445). According to the clerk, Vincent Craig also reputedly built a similar but smaller church a few years before in Castlederg, Co. Tyrone.

Additionally, the church is linked to other buildings in Omagh by its builders, the Colhoun Brothers of Londonderry, who also built other Omagh institutions, including Sacred Heart RC Church (HB11/11/001A), the former St. Lucia’s Military Barracks, Omagh (HB11/09/005A) and the former Tyrone and Fermanagh Mental Hospital (HB11/15/004A) (Mitchell, pg. 160).

The late-nineteenth-century church was erected after Omagh’s other Presbyterian church, Trinity (HB11/11/007A) broke off from this congregation and later erected their own 1856 single-cell structure (later extended). It replaced a mid-eighteenth-century T-plan church that was re-erected in the folk park in Cultra, outside Belfast. (McCandles, p8-10).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/35/1-First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/35/2-Second Edition OS Map (1854)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/35/3-Third Edition OS Map (1905-6)
4. PRONI VAL/1/D/6/6 -Town Plan of Omagh (1824-1844)
5. PRONI VAL/2/D/6/17 -Town Plan of Omagh (1849-1869)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/6/36 -Valuation Revisions (1860-1929)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/41/37-Valuation Revisions (1903-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/186/1/5 -Town Plan of Omagh (1882-1909)
9. PRONI VAL/12/F/7/7/1- Valuation Revisions (1930-35)

Secondary Sources

1. Dr. C. J H Mitchell, current church clerk, 2009.
2. Rowan, Alistair. Buildings of Ireland-North West Ulster. Penguin: London, 1979.
3. McKinley, Robert. “Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital: A Chronological History” in Haldane Mitchell, ed. Images of Omagh and District. Vol. 7. Omagh: Rotary Club of Omagh, 1999, pp71.
4. Mitchell, Haldane, Ed. Images of Omagh and District. Vol. 7. Omagh: Rotary Club of Omagh, 1999.
5. McCandless, John and Claire McElhinney. “The People of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Omagh: 1754-2004.” Omagh: Self-published, 2004.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A triple-height stone Gothic Presbyterian church, built c.1895-7, 'reputedly by Vincent Craig. Demonstrating fine ornamentation and craftsmanship, this well-proportioned late-nineteenth-century structure is well preserved with an impressive interior including banded columns reminiscent of Butterfield’s work at St. Mark’s Church of Ireland, Dundela, Belfast, and clerestory dormers reminiscent of R. Norman Shaw’s various Arts and Crafts churches. It is an assured composition with unusual detailing and a fine example of a late Victorian gothic church.